Festival Week At SPAC Opened By Three Groups

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, August 26, 1969

Festival Week at Saratoga Performing Arts Center opened last night with a trio of performers and a disappointing
3,000 attending, largely lawn crowd. Had the weather been better, perhaps the turnout might have been larger.

Displaying a very pleasant, clear voice, personable manner and an intelligible delivery was the young singer, Oliver, backed by three musicians. The crowd seemed inattentive at several points in his performance, a shame, indeed, for a rising young singer working his darndest onstage.

He offered his latest hit, “Jean,” a very enjoyable love song done in an interesting arrangement, and also sang “If You Go Away,” “Where Is Love” and the very pleasant “Good Morning, Sunshine.”

Also on last night’s bill was the First Edition, four guys and a gal, offering a combination of songs and humor that proved a real hit with the audience.

Their offering ranged from “Reuben James” and “Sunshine” to “Funny Feeling,” “Ruby” and “Baby, Without You.”

Opening the show were the Friends of Distinction, two guys and two gals, backed by five musicians, who wandered onstage in the most casual manner to open the show ever witnessed at SPAC.

For the first time in quite a few weeks, SPAC will be dark tonight, reopening tomorrow at 8:30 with Janis Joplin and the James Cotton Blues Band.